The Safest Airline in the World is Not What You Expect

Travel expert Simon Calder says the safest airline in the world is not a big airline like British Airways or Qantas. It is actually a budget airline that flies 216 million people every year on about 3,800 flights per day.

Some people remember a movie called Rain Man where a character says Qantas has never had a crash. But this is not entirely true.

For a long time, Qantas was thought to be one of the safest airlines. However, in 2026, another airline called Etihad Airways was ranked as the safest in the world.

Simon Calder thinks a different airline is the safest. He says it is Ryanair, a budget airline that many people use. He told a newspaper that it is a great time to travel and that Ryanair is the safest airline.

This is not the first time Simon Calder has said that Ryanair is the safest. He said it before in 2024 and reminded people that Ryanair has never had a fatal crash.

Ryanair has had some small incidents, like when one of its planes hit a fence at an airport. But no one was hurt and the plane was not in the air at the time.

Qantas has not had a fatal crash since 1951, but it did have some crashes before that. A pilot named Patrick Smith says that Qantas has had a good safety record since 1951.

Patrick Smith says it is hard to say which airline is the safest because crashes are very rare. He thinks people should not worry too much about safety when choosing an airline.

He says that the difference in safety between airlines is very small and not worth worrying about. Instead, people should think about the price, schedule, and service of the airline.

Patrick Smith also says that budget airlines are not necessarily less safe than big airlines. He says that the safety record of budget airlines is good and people should not be afraid to use them.

A list of the safest airlines was published in 2026 by a website called AirlineRatings.com.

The list shows which airlines are the safest in the world.

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